Novum Initium
Section heading It is the day of the first mission, the necessary exhibits, holding pens, and whatnot have all been set up as needed for this day, and all the staff are ready for what they have to do. The rescue team for this very first mission consists of Drew, Leon, Adrian, Jack, and Alice. Since this is the very first mission, it has been deemed necessary that all five of the selected 'rescue team regulars' be on board. With everyone staying at the park at the ready to do what is needed as things unfold, the rescue team travels to Jurassic North America. After about five or 10 minutes of searching, the team comes across their first worthy Prehistoric Park residents, a small herd of stegosaurus, Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus. At first, the gang puts some time aside to simply observe the great beasts. Then the alpha male (Gideon) manages to notice them nearby, and he turns to face them, looking and acting somewhat on guard. After a tense moment, Drew manages, with some help for Leon and Alice, to soothe it down with plant offerings. With Gideon apparently satisfied, Drew activates the portal and entices Gideon into going through with some more plant offerings thrown through the portal as bait. Gideon eagerly charges through the portal to get the snack, the entire rest of his herd following close behind him. Later, after managing to rescue a small herd of Camptosaurus, just narrowly missing the chance to bring in a pack of ornitholestes that were chasing the camptosaurus herd, the group come across Arlo being menaced by a trio of ceratosaurus. Leon manages to entice the giant carnivores into coming at him and through the portal through use of a masterful on the spot use of imitations of their vocalizations. With the carnivores out of the way, Drew briefly goes back to the park to bring Linda over to take care of Arlo. While Linda is busy with Arlo, Drew and the gang manage to rescue multiple other animals. Later, back at the park, Linda manages to bring in the relatively recovered Arlo. Back in the past, after having rescued so many other animals, the gang finally comes across a valley filled with a larger herd of apatosaurus, several diplodocus, and multiple Camarasaurus. They manage to lead the apatosaurus herd through first with relatively little trouble as the herd moves along to leave the valley for other areas. Then they manage to rescue the diplodocus and camarosaurus herds as well as a small pack of allosaurus when the carnivores come into the picture to hunt. A while later, the gang finally comes across a small group of Brachiosaurus, where the lead male is doing battle with the leader of a small five-member pack of saurophaganax. While Leon manages to briefly distract the carnivores with his vocalizations, the rest of the group manage to hurriedly attract the brachiosaurus herd through the portal, no sooner does the last of the sauropods go through the portal when the saurophaganax return their attention and get enraged at the escape of their prey and the presence of the foreign mammals, at which point, they too end up running through the portal. With the mission done, target species rescued, and a respectable amount of other animals (with large numbers of both individuals and in types of species) rescued to go with the targets, the gang returns to the park. Linda, having successfully treated the injured Apatosaurus, who she has named Arlo, places him in rehabilitation. Meanwhile, Drew, admiring the brachiosaurs, is surprised by a visit from Theodore, who expresses awe at the mighty sauropods and suggests that the next mission will come sooner than later. Trivia Continuity notes * This story is a follow-on from "The Adventure Begins"; perhaps of note, Jurassic Wyoming was the location Theodore showed Drew, Leon and Adrian in that story. This, combined with his awe as he looks at the animals at the end, indicates that the location is a favourite of his. *When Leon attempts to lure the ceratosaurus away from Arlo, Jack gives him an open-mouthed look of shock at the recklessness of his plan. This is actually a stealth start to Jack and Leon's arc for this phase, which will culminate in Devils of the Deep. * Linda appears to have bonded quite closely with Arlo the Apatosaurus; this'll be important in future plot points. Prehistoric Park fanfiction references * As the author himself points out, there are parallels between Arlo's Real-life references * The title is Latin for "New Beginning". * This mission was partly based on The Ballad of Big Al, the Walking with Dinosaurs episode "Time of the Titans" and the Planet Dinosaur episode "Fight for Life" with several scenes borrowed from those stories; for example, an Allosaurus ambushing a group of herbivores. *